The Internet is a world-wide interconnected network of devices including computers, servers, gateways, routers and other devices. The World-Wide-Web (WWW) is collection of servers and other devices on the Internet that support electronic document exchange. Electronic documents on the WWW are formatted in special languages called mark-up languages (e.g., Hyper Text Mark-Up Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), etc.) that support electronic links or “hyperlinks” to other documents, as well as to graphics, audio, video, animation and other types of electronic content.
To find electronic information on the WWW, search engines are used. A “search engine” is a software program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of hyperlinks to the documents where the keywords were found. Although a search engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to specifically describe systems like Yahoo, Google, Bing and others that enable users to search for electronic content on the WWW.
Typically, a search engine works by sending out a software “spider” to fetch as many electronic documents as possible. Another program, called an “indexer,” then reads these documents and creates an index of Uniform Resource Locators (URL) based on the keywords contained in each document. Each search engine typically uses a distinct proprietary algorithm to create its indices such that meaningful results are returned for each query.
A “spider” is an automated program that searches the Internet for new WWW documents. An “indexer” indexes the corresponding URLs and content-related information in a database, which can be examined for matches by a search engine. Spiders are generally considered to be a type of “bot,” or Internet robot and are also called “crawlers.”
However, there are a number of problems associated with general search engines. One problem is that a general search engine is designed to provide all types of general information to all types of users. A general search engine's search algorithms are typically designed to “horizontally” search for a “breath” of information to provide general types of information. This horizontal search approach causes individuals looking for specific information on the WWW to look through hundreds, if not thousands, of irrelevant pieces of information to finally locate the information they seek, provided they find it at all.
Another problem is that general search engines often return indexes including a large number of links to information that is not closely related to a search requested by a user. This makes it difficult for a user to locate desired information and often leads to user confusion and user dissatisfaction.
Another problem is that vague search terms used in a general search engine return a large a huge number of results. However, a vague search term may be a term of art or all the user knows. The vague search term may not be vague at all when applied to a specific topic or a specific topic.
There have been some attempts to solve some of the problems with general search engines with specialized search engines, such as vertical search engines. Vertical search engines are designed to “vertically” search for a “depth” of information instead of “horizontally” search for a “breath” of information. There has also been some attempts to use cloud computing networks with search engines.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,917,584, that issued to Arthursson teaches “Generally described, the present invention is directed to a network operating system that provides more effective ways of leveraging the connectivity of computer networks. In one embodiment, an XML virtual machine is implemented that accepts high-level application code written in an XML programming language as input. Functionality is provided to interpret or translate the application code written in an XML programming language into code that is suitable for execution across computer platforms. Moreover, the XML virtual machine supports the Model View Controller (MVC) design paradigm that facilitates true data abstraction from applications to a common data model. Multi-instance applications, with each instance potentially supporting multiple views, may be created and executed.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,908,151 that issued to Heckerman et al teaches “The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates dynamically providing a question to ask a medical professional during an appointment. An interface can receive a portion of medical data. A counselor component can generate a question based on the portion of medical data, wherein the question is generated to elicit an answer from a medical professional during an appointment. Moreover, the counselor component can dynamically generate a second question directed toward the medical professional based upon at least one of the answer or a value of information (VOI) computation.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,890,549 that issued to Elad et al teaches “The present invention, known as The Collaboration Portal (COPO), relates generally to the field of automated entity, data processing, system control, and data communications, and more specifically to an integrated method, system, and apparatus for providing computer-accessible benefits for communities of users. It provides a framework for provisioning computer-accessible benefits for communities of users, and can efficiently and robustly distribute the processing in behalf of those users over a decentralized network of computers. The field of the invention generally encompasses enabling appropriate and desired communication among communities of users and organizations, and providing information, goods, services, a works, opportunities, and connections among users and organizations.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,885,913 that issued to Weber et al teaches “System and method related to a distributed collaborative knowledge generation system are disclosed. The distributed collaborative knowledge generation system includes one or more databases configured to store content information related to the distributed collaborative knowledge generation system, a search services module configured to search for the content information, a web services module configured to retrieve and gather the content information, a presentation services module configured to share the content data with multiple users, and a data services module configured to manage the content information by providing interfaces between the one or more databases, the search services module, the web services module, and the presentation services module.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,873,349 that issued to Smith et al teaches “A mobile communication device that may be used by an investigator to secretly record a suspect and track the investigator's location includes a microphone for detecting sounds, a communication component for transmitting signals or data representative of the sounds to one of the portable computers via the wireless communication network, a display for displaying information related to operation of the device, a computing device, and a computer program implemented by the computing device. The computer program is operable to place the device in a stealth mode in which the display is turned off or otherwise deactivated to make the entire device appear to be turned off while the microphone continues to detect sounds and the communication component continues to transmit signals or data representative of the sounds to a surveillance or support team operating one of the portable computers. The mobile communication device may also include a location-determining component for determining geographic locations of the device and for transmitting location data to the portable computer.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,853,458 that issued to Hoffman et al teaches “A system is provided that integrates of records of clinical laboratory services into the assessment and optimization of patient health care and, in particular, regulation of the use of pharmaceuticals. Laboratory test result records are used in conjunction with other health care benefits records to monitor regulation of use of pharmaceuticals by patients. The incorporation of laboratory tests and results into such a utilization system allows improvement in the management of a patient's therapy based on a more precise picture of the patient's level of illness as revealed by the laboratory test results. The system of the present invention also allows optimization of the selection of laboratory tests to be performed, and also provides an outcome assessment of the risk of hospitalization due to pharmaceutical treatments resulting in physician intervention, leading to a change in physician prescribing behavior and, accordingly, a decrease in drug induced hospitalizations and improved quality of patient care and savings of health care costs.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,716,209 that issued to Rappaport et al teaches “A method of searching for information includes receiving a query, providing the query to a first search engine that searches a set of data sources, the data sources having relationships to an ontology, receiving search results from the search engine, analyzing the search results to determine at least one statistic corresponding to the search results and the query, wherein the statistic is based upon a relevance score that is calculated based upon a first weighting function related to a concept, a second weighting function related to a data source item, a set of items related to the concept, and a set of items related to the search results, and providing at least one concept to a user, wherein said at least one concept correspond to said at least one statistic.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,714,934 that issued to Ejima et al teaches “Digital audio data which have a predetermined packet structure are divided into units including a predetermined number of bits; each unit of the divided digital audio data is converted into specific data to be encoded; the encoded data are arranged in blanking intervals of video data; the digital audio data are transmitted as well as the video data using a transmission line for the video data, and the video data and the audio data may be simultaneously and favorably transmitted, adopting an existing video-data transmission format such as the DVI standard.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,680,860 that issued to Fordham teaches “A method and system for creating a vertical search engine. The method and system may help allow “vortals” to be created for the Internet and other computer networks that efficiently index and search lists of Uniform Resource Locators (“URLs”) created from an appropriate list of keywords for a selected topic. Vortals include information pertinent to a targeted topic of a very small horizontal breath, but a larger depth. The created vortals may provide greater user satisfaction and less user frustration when searching for information about a selected topic.”
U.S. Pat. No. 7,593,935 that issued to Sullivan teaches “Systems and methods for ranking pages and/or hosts in a faster and more relevant manner are provided. Systems and methods for ranking pages and/or hosts based on session data and/or traffic data are also provided. According to the invention, session maps can be created using DNS and/or ISP data. Systems and methods for ranking pages and/or hosts for the purpose of doing business are also provided.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,934 that issued to Fordham teaches “A vortal is a specific type of search engine that provides information and resources related only to one (or a small number) specific topic. These sites typically contain focused information, such as “vertical” or “in-depth” information pertinent only to their particular targeted topic of interest. Vortals include information pertinent to a targeted topic of a very small horizontal breath, but a larger depth. A method and system for creating a vertical search engine is presented. The method and system may help allow vortals to be created for the Internet and other computer networks that efficiently index and search lists of Uniform Resource Locators (“URLs”) created from an appropriate list of keywords for a selected topic. The created vortals may provide greater user satisfaction and less user frustration when searching for information about a selected topic.”
However, none of these solutions solve all the problems with general and/or specialized search engines. Thus, it is desirable to solve some of the problems associated with generals search engines.